This invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing a speed compensation scheme for reading MICR data.
In conventional Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) systems, like E13B for example, characters encoded on a document are read by moving the document in reading relationship with a read head to produce a magnetic waveform which corresponds to the character being read. A character is recognized by dividing the waveform into sections or windows, with the features of the waveform within each window being compared with a stored template for character recognition. If there are changes in the speed of the document as it is being moved past the read head, the features of the waveform may not fall within the expected windows, and consequently, the character being read will be rejected as a reject.
Expensive, constant velocity motors are often used to provide a constant velocity for moving the document past the read head. Another prior art system utilizes a timing disc to provide clocking pulses related to the velocity of document being moved past the read head.